Pakistan halts polio vaccination campaign after gunmen kill health worker and police

PAKISTAN has suspended an polio vaccination campaign after a health worker and two police officers were shot dead amid a social media health scare that has caused near hysteria.

Unknown gunmen killed one health worker and two police guards in separate attacks in north eastern Pakistan, while fake claims that the vaccine was harmful started a panic among parents.

More than 25,000 children were taken to hospital in the region after false reports that the vaccine was causing vomiting and fainting. A mob also burned down a health centre.

Pakistani health officials had hoped to end the circulation of the virus this year, but recent months have seen a stubborn increase in polio cases, while samples show it is still in sewage.

Conspiracy theories that polio drops are a Western plot to sterilise Muslim children, as well as rumours of other harmful health reactions, have fed a small but stubborn and occasionally violent resistance to the programme.

A CIA fake vaccination campaign, which was used to gather DNA samples in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, has added to suspicion of the West.

Last week’s panic in Pakistan saw at least 700,000 families refuse vaccination in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone, local media reported.

Health officials halted the most recent drive last week because an “uncertain and threatening situation for front-line workers has emerged and we need to save the programme from further damage” an order said. Post campaign monitoring has also stopped.

Officials are looking at how to adapt the campaign, currently held every six weeks – a frequency intended to ensure no children are missed – saying it frustrates parents who are asked to give their children drops up to 10 times a year. Less frequent drives, perhaps quarterly, could follow and a new national information campaign is likely to be launched in Pakistan to fight popular misconceptions.

Poliomyelitis is on the verge of eradication. The wild virus is only found in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Last year, there were 33 cases, down from 350,000 annual cases when the push for global eradication began in 1988.